Organ valve



March 13, 1962 R. H, MILES ET AL 3,024,689

ORGAN VALVE Filed June 30, 1960 FIG.

FIG. 3

27 M 25 iaz F30 J/ 3 IN VEN TOR. 19065? A. fi/L [5 b ywzwizm United States Patent 3,024,689 ORGAN VALVE Roger H. Miles and George E. Gress, Washington, N.J., assignors to Gress-Miles Organ Co., Inc., Washington, N.J., a corporation of New Jersey Filed June 30, 1960, Ser. No. 39,902 3 Claims. (Cl. 84-335) This invention relates to the art of electric organs, and more particularly to the valve mechanism thereof.

As conducive to an understanding of the invention, it is noted that in electric organs in which the flow of air through the organ pipes is controlled by solenoid actuated valves energized by the pressing of the key of the organ, if the organist should inadvertently graze a key while moving his fingers, due to the sensitivity of the electric controls, this would cause closure of a circuit to a solenoid, so that an erroneous note will be sounded which, though only momentary, would detract from the quality of the performance.

Where, upon closure of the valve after the solenoid is de-energized when the organ key is released, the valve should bounce slightly, permitting escape of even a small quantity of air to an organ pipe, the resultant erroneous note sounded, even though of slight duration, will also detract from the quality of performance.

It is accordingly among the objects of the invention to provide a solenoid controlled valve for an electric organ, which will momentarily remain in closed position after the circuit thereto is completed, so that momentary grazing of the organ key will have no effect to open such valve, and which valve, upon closure thereof after the circuit thereto is broken in normal operation of the organ key, will remain in closed position even though the armature of the solenoid may bounce slightly during closure.

According to the invention, these objects are accomplished by the arrangement and combination of elements hereinafter described and more particularly recited in the claims.

In the accompanying drawings in which is shown one of various possible embodiments of the several features of the invention,

FIG. 1 is a sectional view illustrating a valve according to the invention controlling an organ pipe,

FIG. 2 is a view on an enlarged scale of the solenoid controlled valve, and

FIG. 3 is a fragmentary detail view taken along line 33 of FIG. 2.

Referring now to the drawings, the organ pipe 11 is shown connected at its lower end to an outlet port 12 in a wind chest or chamber 13 which is supplied with air under pressure from a compressor (not shown) connected to inlet port 14.

The outlet port 12 is controlled by a valve 15 actuated by a solenoid 16, the terminals 17 of which are connected in conventional manner to one of the organ keys (not shown) and to a source of potential so that upon pressing of the key the solenoid 16 will be energized.

The solenoid 16 may be of conventional type and comprises a magnet coil 18, the core 19 of which is secured at one end, as at 20, to the substantially vertical leg 21 of a bracket 22, the horizontal leg 23 of which is secured as by screws 24 to the top wall 25 of wind chest 13 adjacent outlet port 12.

The leg 21 of bracket 22 has an aperture 26 adjacent its upper end, defining a pair of legs 27 between which extends one end 28 of a soft iron armature 29. A wire 30 defining a pivot is secured at its ends, as at 31, to the legs 27 and extends transversely thereacross, a strip 32 extending over said wire at right angles thereto being secured at its ends to the armature, pivotally to mount the latter on said wire.

The other end of the armature has a downwardly curved portion 35, the extremity of which is normally adjacent and spaced from the end 36 of the core, to be attracted thereby when the coil 18 is energized. This will cause the armature 28 to pivot in a counterclockwise direction from the position shown against the counter force exerted by a coil spring 37 secured at one end to an arm 38 carried by the bracket 22, and at its other end to the end 28 of the armature 29.

The valve 15 according to the invention comprises a hollow disc 41, which has a rigid floor 42 and a resilient top wall 43. Extending through an axial opening 44 in the floor 42 is a stem 45, which has an enlarged head 46 at its inner end of diameter greater than that of opening 44 and which is positioned in the hollow valve. The outer portion of the stem 45 extends through a resilient washer 47, illustratively of felt, and the end of the stem is rigidly secured as at 48, to the armature, a resilient bumper 49 being mounted on the coil 18 aligned with the end of said stem.

In the operation of the organ, when the solenoid 16 is not energized, the coil spring 37 will urge the armature 29 in a clockwise direction, thereby retaining the valve 15 in sealing engagement against the outlet port 12 so that the compressed air in Wind chest 13 will not escape through the port 12 into the organ pipe 11.

When the organ key is affirmatively pressed by the organist and a circuit is completed to the magnet coil 18 of the solenoid, the armature 29 will pivot in a counterclockwise direction against the counter force exerted by spring 37. Due to the lost motion offered by the sliding stem 45, such movement of the armature will not immediately apply positive force against the valve to move the latter away from the outlet port 12, and due to the air pressure in the wind chest, the valve will remain in sealing position over said port 12.

Continued movement of the armature 29 will, of course, cause the head 46 of the stern thereof to engage the floor 42 of the valve, positively to move the valve away from the outlet port 12 so that the compressed air may pass through the organ pipe 11.

As the delay before positive movement of the valve away from the outlet port is of extremely short duration, rapid keying of the organ for high quality performance will not be impaired, yet the delay is still sufiicient to prevent inadvertent opening of the outlet port 1 2 due to momentary grazing of an unselected key by the organist.

When the organ key is released in normal operation to de-energize the solenoid, the spring 37 will rapidly pivot the armature 29 in a clockwise direction to move the valve to closed position over the outlet port 12. Although there may be a tendency for the armature 29 to bounce slightly, with the construction shown this will have no elfect as far as permitting slight escape of air from the outlet port, since the air pressure in the chamber will retain the valve in seated position, and any bounce of the armature 29 will merely cause the stem 45 to slide with respect to the floor 42 of the valve without imparting any movement to the latter.

With the relatively simple valve construction above described, undesired notes due to inadvertent grazing of the keys of the organ or of bouncing of the armature upon de-energization of the solenoid will be precluded without in any way impairing rapid keying of the organ.

As many changes could be made in the above construction, and many apparently widely different embodiments of this invention could be made without departing from the scope of the claims, it is intended that all matter contained in the above description or shown in the accompanying drawing shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

Having thus described our invention, what We claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

1. A solenoid actuated valve assembly for controlling the admission of air from the wind chest to the pipe of an organ, said assembly comprising a solenoid having an armature, a valve carried by said armature and movable thereby, said valve comprises a hollow disc having a fioor with an axial opening and a top wall defining the valve head, a stem extending through said axial opening, said stem having a head at its inner end of diameter greater than that of said opening, said stern being slidable in said opening, the outer end of said stem being secured to said armature, the length of said stem being such that the head thereof is spaced from the floor of the valve when said valve is in its lowermost position on said stem, to form a lost motion connection, and resilient means operatively connected to said armature to urge the latter and the valve thereon in direction opposed to the movement of the armature when the solenoid is energized.

2. The combination set forth in claim 1 in which a resilient Washer encompasses the portion of the stem between the floor of the valve and the armature.

3. A solenoid actuated valve assembly for controlling the admission of air from the Wind chest to the pipe of an organ, said assembly comprising a solenoid having an armature, a valve carried by said armature and movable thereby, said wind chest having an outlet port to which one end of the organ pipe is connected, said solenoid being secured to the inner surface of said wind chest adjacent said outlet port, said valve being movable by said armature toward and away from said outlet port, said valve comprising a hollow disc having a floor with an axial opening and a top Wall defining the valve head adapted to move over said outlet port to close the latter, a stem extending through said axial opening, said stem having a head at its inner end of diameter greater than that of said opening, said stem being slidable in said opening, the outer end of said stem being secured to said armature, and resilient means normally urging said armature in direction to retain said valve head in closed position over said opening, the head of said stem when said valve is in closed position being spaced from the floor of said valve to form a lost motion connection.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,195,536 Van Valkenburg Aug. 22, 1916 1,512,088 Grant Oct. 21, 1924 1,699,363 Klann Ian. 15, 1929 2,805,595 Gundling Sept. 10, 1957 

